Though I consider the posts in this thread comparing P2P unauthorized file sharing to shoplifting without merit, I do consider P2P as copyright infringement. That's what it is, plain and simple.

If the major labels, publishers and other copyright owners want to strictly enforce their copyrights, the courts most certainly will not prevent them from doing so.

Is it really a good business decision, though? The more I think about it, the more I wonder?

If slam dunking or threatening millions of P2P folks who are obviously turned on by music from one genre or another ultimately turns them off to music all together, EVERYBODY loses.

Sure, P2P uploaders and downloaders know that the labels, publishers, artists and writers aren't being paid anything for the "shared" songs, but I suspect that if and when the downloader hears something or someone they really like, they will buy the real thing, despite the get the least for the most pricing at the local music store.

The ultimate goal should be to loosen the stranglehold the majors exert and want to continue to exert over what we hear on the radio, see on TV, and what we can legitimately buy at the music store. Copyright infringement is a problem, but the monopoly the majors hold over the industry is what worries me the most.

If P2P file sharing gives exposure to both new and sometimes forgotten artists, even if it amounts to nothing more than downright copyright infringement, maybe, just maybe, Britny, Christina, Faith, et al, won't be the only roll models available. That would be a major blow to the majors and I, personally, have no problem with that.

If P2P sharing was devastating the music industry as we know it, I would probably be more sympathetic, if only for our sake, but it isn't. What it is doing, though, is putting new material on the shelves at the music stores and at Amazon.com that otherwise would not be there if the majors had their way.

The only thing I ever downloaded from Napster was "Je T'aime," because no record store anywhere had it or could get it. It was available on Napster, though, and now my local music store has even found shelf space for the CD less the one I bought.

This really isn't a black and white issue, but one that has a solution somewhere in the gray area.

I, like everyboby in here, want to "someday," at least, get some reward from my efforts, but if the only copyrights with any market value are the ones owned or controlled my the majors, what's the point?

Though we're all in this together, the majors have something far different in mind.

P.E. Knudsen